Where Did I Go Wrong?
by ifyouevercomebackx
Summary: He's loved her for so long, and now she's getting married. It's time for Nick to move on. THREESHOT - Niley.
1. Chapter 1

He had been the one.

Nick had been the one who had watched while she cried over the boys that had broken her heart time and time again. Nick had been the one who had watched while she got excited over the new boys that replaced the old ones, filling the hole that the last one had left. Nick had been the one who had watched while the vicious cycle continued and she sobbed into his shoulder about how she couldn't find a decent guy that care for her in the way she did for him.

Things just never worked out for Nick when it came to Miley. He had spent years wondering what he had to do and who he had to be to make her love him like she had when she was fourteen, but none of his solutions ever seemed to bring them closer. He always ended up the way he started – nursing a broken heart and wanting her more than he had before. She had moved on in the seven years that had passed since they were together, and it killed him to admit it.

He had seen her with enough guys to know that things never exactly worked out in her favour. They all only wanted one thing from her, and she gave it to them every single time, not even realising that they would be out the door the second they got what they were looking for from her.

"What's wrong with me?" she would sob as he cradled in her in his arms. "Why do they always leave me, Nicky? Am I that difficult a person to be around?"

He had no answer to her questions, or at least not an answer that she would like to hear. He knew exactly why they left, and it was less to do with her and more to do with the types of guys she brought back to her place. He had held her close and listened as she vowed to change herself, knowing fully well that she wouldn't change herself for the world, no matter how much she thought she needed to. It wasn't in her nature to do that for a guy.

A knock on the car window brings him from his thoughts, and he looks up to see his brother staring at him through the glass. Joe motions for him to unlock the car. He obligingly does so and Joe leaps in as quickly as he can.

"It's raining like a bitch today, huh?" he grumbles, staring out as the elements batter against Nick's windscreen.

"Did you give her the letter?" Nick asks immediately.

Joe nods solemnly. "She wants you to know that she's sorry it had to be this way."

Nick says nothing, preferring to stare silently at the church ahead of him. His heart is pounding against his chest as his thoughts fly back and forth like a ping-pong ball.

_Bad analogy,_ he thinks. Ping-pong had always reminded him of Miley and the time they had spent getting to know each other again after all the pain and heartache of their bad break-up.

Joe nudges him nervously with his elbow. "Let's get going, man. This place isn't good for you. Not today." He glances back at the church and then back to his younger brother. "It's too late for this."

"How does she look?" His voice isn't any louder than a faint murmur, but it's impossible not to hear him in the silence of his Mustang, the only sound being the pitter-patter of the rain on the windscreen.

"As beautiful as you can imagine."

"Does she look happy?"

Joe hesitates. He can tell by the hesitation that it isn't going to be good news. He can tell that it's going to sting a little and he's not going to like his brother's answer, but he has to know whether he's going the right thing in letting her go. He has to be sure that, despite the weather not exactly co-operating with her idea of a dream wedding, she wants what he is giving to her; that none of this is a grave and heart-breaking mistake on both parts.

"She wanted you there, Nick."

He knows that she did, that she still does, but when he got that invitation in the mail all those weeks ago, he couldn't bring himself to go. He told her as much. What man wanted to watch the woman he was in love with marry another man? In his eyes, marriage was eternal and everlasting. He wasn't going to watch while his girl made a life-long commitment to someone as different and as unsuited to her as her fiancé.

"He asked me first," she had whispered when he told how much he had wanted to be the one she walked down the aisle to. His cries and shouts that he had loved her hadn't been enough when it came down to it, because someone else was the real man in the situation and he had asked her first at a time when getting married and settling down was as far back in Nick's mind as it could possibly be.

That had been the last night they had spoken to or seen one another. He had told her that he wouldn't be attending her wedding, no matter how much she begged, and she had told him that she no longer loved him in the way that he needed her to. As much as her confession had shattered him, he had left that night knowing that things between them had to change, and change they did. He couldn't be her human shield anymore when he couldn't have all of her, because what was what he needed. All of her. Not part of her affections or fractions of her attention, but all of her.

"It's time to let her go, buddy," Joe whispers, gripping his shoulder supportively.

So Nick reverses out of his parking space and drives out of the lot. He looks in the rear-view mirror and imagines them running from the church, a smile on her face and her white dress billowing behind her as she tries to escape the rain.

He can't help but hope that she sees his Mustang drive away from the church on her wedding day and comes to realise that she's lost him forever by marrying someone else. Maybe that way, she'll realise how much it broke him to sacrifice his own happiness in the way that he had for her.


	2. Chapter 2

Contestant after contestant wanders in to the room. It's the third year that Nick has helped Demi out on The X Factor, but his heart isn't in it in the way it has been in previous years. Finally, the last one leaves, and Nick is left to ask her the question that he's been dying to bring up since he walked in to her loft.

"Have you heard from her?"

He doesn't have to say her name. He knows that Demi will know exactly who he's talking about – she always does. There may never have been any romantic chemistry between them, but they always had some sort of a connection - both through their music and through _her_.

"She's good, I guess."

"You guess?"

Demi sighs and folds her arms. She looks over at her friend. "I shouldn't tell you this, but we've known each other for a long time and I think you deserve to know how she's doing, because I've seen how you've been acting since the wedding and I think that, maybe, knowing what things are like now might give you closure."

He waits patiently for to speak. Time seems to drag as he watches Demi think about how to phrase it.

"Your letter tore her apart at the wedding," Demi admits. "She almost didn't go through with it. She wanted to go after you and explain. You have no idea how badly she wanted you to be there. I think she needed you to be there to prove to herself that what she was doing was the right thing."

"Do you think it was?"

"This isn't about what I think though, is it? It's about you and her."

"Is she okay?"

"Define okay."

"Happy."

Demi chuckles and looks at him. "She chose another man over you, and you aren't even bitter. All you want is for her to be happy. I really do admire you for that." She looks away and fiddles with her blonde hair. "She misses you a lot, that's for sure. He makes her happy, but she isn't complete. She knows that she can't have it both ways, but she feels like she needs both you and him. Does that make sense?"

Nick looks down at his lap. Of course she needs him but won't admit it. It was always the same thing in the past. Why would it be any different now?

"She just thinks that she needs me. She's got him now. I would just get in the way of that."

"Don't play stupid, Nick. She loves you just as much as she loves him, if not more. He just was better at telling her how he felt."

"I told her. That whole damn album was about her," he growls. "I told her that night, and she chose him. I told her in that letter, and she still went ahead with the wedding. In what world does that mean that she loves me as much as she loves him?"

"As I said before, she almost didn't go ahead with the wedding," Demi replies calmly. "She thought you didn't care when she chose between you, okay? Before the album, before that night, before the wedding."

Nick stays silent, thinking it over. Maybe Miley loved him, but just not enough to end things with the one who was keeping them apart. It was understandable, he supposes.

"She asks about you every day," Demi says softly.

His head snaps up. "She does?"

She smiles sadly and nods. "Every single day, without fail. The worst part is that I can't tell her the truth, because I know that, really, she doesn't want to know it. So I lie and tell her that you're happy and recording a new album with your brothers and that you're excited to get back on the road, but you're not happy, are you? And you won't be without her."

"Demi …"

"She loves you, Nick. It would kill her if she knew what she's done to you. I can't do that to her, not until she decides properly what she wants."

"She already has decided. You know better than anyone how she feels about marriage. She isn't going to break her vows for anyone, not even me." Nick looks out the window and shakes his head. "And _him_?"

Demi hesitates. "He wants to start a family with her, but she keeps putting it off. She can't do it yet. The feelings after the letter are still fresh, you know?"

He feels tears prick the backs of his eyes. Maybe it's knowing that she really had gone through with the wedding, or maybe it's knowing that he wants to start a family with Nick's girl. Either way, the pain he had felt on her wedding way is back with full force. He turns to look at Demi and murmurs, "I only wrote that letter so she'd know. I couldn't let her do it without knowing."

She reaches out and clutches his hand tightly, looking at him sympathetically. "She understands. She just can't have everything. She has to make sacrifices, and unfortunately, you were one of them." She takes a shaky breath and says, "Some day, Miley is going to come back to you. It may not be today or this year or even in this life, but some day in the future, she's going to come back, and you're going to realize that there is a light at the end of the tunnel."

"And what if she doesn't?"

Demi smiles supportively and nods. "She will. Miley will always come back to you, Nick. Always."


	3. Chapter 3

How does everything change so quickly? Your first love goes from being distant and unattainable to being so close and so … single. The person you've wanted more than anything for years is finally within reach and then suddenly made unavailable all over again, and it all seems to happen in a matter of seconds.

He sees her for the first time in years at an awards show in Europe. He had heard that she might make an appearance, but he didn't think that he quite believed it, not after the announcement she made to the press only the week before.

"Miley's here," his brother whispers to him.

Even though he didn't believe it, Joe's comment doesn't surprise him or shock him as much as he thought it would. All he wants is to see her, to hug her and tell her just how much he has missed her all these years.

He sees her for the first time that night as she steps on to the red carpet. The photographers and interviewers go crazy for her. The flashes erupt and the shouting starts as they ask her questions about the breakdown of her marriage. He knows her well enough to see the pain in her eyes. He knows that her marriage is the last thing she wants to talk about to a mass of strangers.

The dress is perfect. Red – his favourite colour on her, as she knows – and flowing down to ground, showing off all her assets. It's as if she's trying to drive him insane.

She sees him and she approaches him with a soft smile. "Nick," she breathes, looking him up and down. "You look great."

"So do you," he stammers. "I mean, considering what's been going on."

He mentally slaps himself in the face for that comment. He sees her face fall slightly at his reference to her soon-to-be ex-husband. He immediately regrets even opening his mouth.

"Do you think we can talk?" she asks softly.

He glances at his brothers. He loves Miley. He has always loved Miley. They know that. But the look on their faces tells him exactly what they think – he can't talk to Miley, and they're right. He soon realises that what they're thinking is exactly right. She just broke up with her husband of five years. It's only natural to look for a rebound, and she uses her knowledge of his emotions to her advantage.

His brothers are right – don't be her rebound. Don't walk in to having a broken heart. Just let her go. Move on and let her go about her business. Mid-twenties and waiting on a divorce, Miley isn't the girl he once knew. She's damaged and emotional, and he can't be her back-up. Not now.

It takes everything in him, but he shakes his head slightly and says, "I don't think that's a good idea, Miley."

Her face falls once more, and it kills him to see her like that, but he knows that his brothers are right. The last thing she needs is to start something up with someone like him, someone so damaged by her that he doesn't know what to do with himself anymore. Someone so in love with her that he'll take her crap over and over again because he doesn't want to risk losing her again.

Who knows? Maybe one day they could finally be together again. But for now, what Miley needs is to be far, far away from him.

He stands there and watches her walk away, and he wonders where he went wrong. Was it all those years ago when they first started dating? Was it the time he visited her in Georgia? Was it the time he wrote a song about her engagement and sang it for the world to hear? Because his mistakes had to start somewhere. He just can't pinpoint exactly when that was.

It kills him, but he has to let her go.

Maybe Demi was right all that time ago. Maybe it wouldn't be this year or even in this lifetime, but Miley will come back to him, because she's his angel, and angels always fly back to where they came from.


End file.
